bubble battle in Verbier ski resort

They keep pushing, despite binding federal laws that aim to protect the mountain – or what’s left of it. We are talking about the giant luxury chalets of Verbier, a chic ski resort in a Switzerland that has so many. Some of these luxury wooden homes have underground swimming pools and several basements for nightly libations, away from prying eyes. They were occupied by English, Russian and other “investors”, which gave the Valais resort a sulphurous reputation, half scoundrel, half glamorous.

Regularly, the Val de Bagnes, of which Verbier is part, is talked about. Its authorities would have a nimble hand in granting building permits, which is in any case what the courts which are examining illicit realizations assume. And what is happening just behind the tinted windows of these prestigious chalets?

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To get a little insight, you have to draw on the recent memories of Grégory Sola, director of Macbirch Vins, one of the resort’s two major wine merchants (two wine merchants in a single station, that’s a good thing). The latter takes care of both a large private clientele – 1,200 addresses in his file – and the wine list of the seven restaurants, in resort and in altitude, of the KV group, of which the cellar is part. “We often deal with unusual orders during the season, he said. A few years ago, I received a urgent phone call, several dozen magnums of Perrier-Jouët champagne had to be delivered. Belle Epoque at 600 euros per unit, a reference that we did not have in stock in these quantities. It was a bit sporty, but we did it! It was then that we realized that we were dealing with Madonna and her little entourage of thirty people; they had fled Gstaad because of the lack of snow. ”

First glamor division

Trained at the University of Wine in Suze-la-Rousse (Drôme), the French oenologist took up residence in Verbier eight years ago after several years spent in Lebanon, working for an importer of great Burgundy wines. In the Swiss resort, he joined Macbirch, a wine merchant present since 1982, long before Verbier rose to the first division of Alpine glamor and chic. They are only four, in the Swiss Confederation, to dispute today this international clientele with bottomless pockets: Saint-Moritz, in the canton of Graubünden, in eastern Switzerland; Gstaad in that of Bern; Zermatt and Verbier, both in Valais. But over the past twenty years, it is above all the latter that has hit the headlines, increasing the “après-ski” offer more quickly than that of the ski lifts.

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